Greenland, showing rates of surface-elevation change between the late 1990s and 2003

Greenland, showing rates of surface-elevation change between the late 1990s and 2003

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Description:
Mass-balance estimates for Greenland show thickening at high elevations since the early 1990s at rates that increased to about 4 cm per year after 2000, consistent with expectations of increasing snowfall in a warming climate. However, this mass gain is far exceeded by losses associated with large increases in thinning of the ice sheet near the coast. Total loss from the ice sheet more than doubled, from a few tens of billions of tonnes per year in the early 1990s, to about 100 billion tonnes per year after 2000, with perhaps a further doubling by 2005. These rapidly increasing losses result partly from more melting during warmer summers, and partly from increased discharge of ice from outlet glaciers into the ocean. In particular, the speeds of three of Greenland’s fastest glaciers approximately doubled since 2000, although two of them have partially slowed since. The analysis has been derived by comparing satellite and aircraft laser-altimeter surveys. The graph shows rates at wh ...

Mean snow-cover extent in the Northern Hemisphere 1966-2006Snow occurs predominantly on the northern continents, on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean and on Antarctica. On the Northern Hemisphere continents, snow covers a maximum mean area of 45.2 million km2, typically in January...

By Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Ice sheets, schematic illustration for Greenland and AntarcticaThe ice cover in Greenland and Antarctica has two components – thick, grounded, inland ice that rests on a more or less solid bed, and thinner floating ice shelves and glacier tongues. An ice sheet is actually a giant gl...

By Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Major glacier hazard locationsMajor glacier hazard locations

By Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Sea ice concentration change over the 21st century as projected by climate modelsThe data are taken from climate model experiments of 12 (out of 24) different models that were conducted for the IPCC Assessment Report 4 using the SRES A1B greenhouse gas emission scenario. Plots on the right show chang...

By Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Glacier changes on Nevado de Santa Isabel, ColombiaWith spectacular mountain peak glaciers melting away, the NEvado de Santa Isabel area in Colombia becomes less attractive to tourists. In addition, the local forestry and agricultural fertility suffer may suffer from red...

By Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Projected reduction in snow 2080-2100Using one specific climate change model (ECHAM5) and the SRES A2 emission scenario (run 2) the projected loss of snow amounts to decreases of 60–80 per cent in monthly maximum snow water equivalent over most middle latit...

By Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Ice avalanches of the Nevados Huascarán in PeruMany disasters have been recorded from the glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca. The 1962 and 1970 events originating from Glaciar 511 on the Nevados Huascarán, the highest peak of which is at 6768 m above sea level in the ...

By Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Projected winter temperature changes in the ArcticThe changes in cold-season mean temperatures over Arctic land regions are broken into three latitudinal bands for each region, as shown on the small map (which has an outer rim of 50° N). Error bars represent standard de...